i digress, enjoy. Winter 49 of 511
It was early morning as Daston was abruptly woken by his adopted father who was a wrinkled old ex-Polar bear guard. Though despite his age he still retained much of his large stature and muscle. Daston, even with the strength of his young age would not dare cross him. He groaned as he felt his fathers calloused hands shaking his shoulder.
“I have a surprise for you son. I think you’ll like it.” Daston’s father stopped shaking his shoulder and waited for him to get up. “Of course I could always take it back if you don’t get up soon.” The old man was had a big grin on his face which was unusual for him.
Daston’s eyes changed from ice-blue to a mix of dark green and blue as he pondered what his father could have been talking about. He turned over to face him and sat up quickly, he was suddenly a little more awake, enough to get himself up anyway. The room was small, the walls were made of wooden planks, there was a candle burning in the corner on a desk; his father must have lit it when he came in. On the desk sitting next to the candle were some of the books on old wizards he often found himself scanning through piled clumsily on top of each other. Then the only other thing in the room was his fur-lined coat hanging off the wall to his left. He glanced past his father through the doorway down a hall, he would normally see sunlight coming from the windows of the main room if it was day. It was pitch black outside still, it must have been only a 3 or four bells 4 bells into the day. “Okay dad, let me get dressed.” He said with a casual smile that was half used to simply humor his father so he could wake up without him standing there.
“All right Aur, meet me outside when you are dressed.” His father still had that same grin on his face. He turned and walked ou of his room closing the door slowly and quietly so he wouldn’t wake up anyone sleeping in the Snowsong hold. Daston reached under his bed and pulled out a medium sized chest that was full of his clothes and two fur lined boots. He curled his fingers around both metal levers that acted as mechanisms to keep the chest closed and snapped them up, the chest immediately sprung part way open as clothes overflowed out its top. Daston has a normal amount of clothes, but they never fit in properly because he would stuff them in without folding them, which usually ended in exerting more effort trying to close the chest than he would have if he folded his clothes properly in the first place. One of many lessons he decided was not worth his time to actually act on since he justified the extra work as a little extra strength training. He ruffled around in the heaping mess of clothes and pulled out big bulky pants meant for warmth in the snow and a black long sleeved shirt. He stuffed his other clothes back into the chest with ease and closed it. He put the shirt, pants, and boots on and did the same with the jacket hanging on the wall. He left the jacket unbuttoned and blew out the candle and walked as straight forward as he could, trying not to bump into any walls or doors in the dark hall. He clumsily bumped into a door and made a loud knocking sound as he almost stumbled over from the sudden obstacle. He instinctually whispered loudly “Sorry!” and kept on down the hall. He made it into the main room, outside it was not as lightless as he had imagined, there was a soft glow from the aurora that lit up the snow enough to be able to see as if there was moon light. He took a quick look through all the windows, to see if he could see where his father was, but saw nothing but ice or snow. He walked outside and looked up at the Aurora which he felt very attached to and smiled as his eyes changed to a mildly icy blue. His hair had a shimmering of green under the light of the aurora. He was glad it wasn’t snowing, he wasn’t in the mood after waking up so early to trudge through a blizzard.
“Hey lets go.” His father was around 10 strides away from him leaning against a tree. He began walking towards Frostfawn hold.
Daston followed him ran to catch up with him then matched his walking pace. He looked at his father with suspicion. “Are you going to tell me where we are going or am I going to be kept in the dark.”
“You know your eyes were once of ice, now they are of water and leaf.” He had a tendency to begin to talk ambiguously when he was avoiding a question.
Daston rolled his eyes and knew his father wouldn’t budge at an answer. He decided to stay silent as he strided through the fresh snow, which he was now noticing was fresh, it must have been snowing last night and the clouds probably cleared not too long ago. They reached the stables and his father nodded to a couple gaurds nearby letting them know they were entering the stables, the gaurds nodded back with respect and they entered the stables. The smell of hay and horse droppings filled his nostrils causing him to squint his eyes for a moment at the smell. They walked down rows of docked sleigh horses which he knew were Avanthalians and smaller riding horses that he knew were Frostmarch horses until they reached a magnificent white Frostmarch horse he knew as Frostwind, his father’s horse. His father patted Frostwind but then turned his attention to a slightly smaller and younger looking horse (though he was mostly guessing on size as Daston is unfamiliar with horses.) of the same white intensity but seemed more restless than Frostwind (it was constantly snorting and moving around in its confined space), which also made him think it was a younger horse.
His father said nothing and began soothing the horse by softly stroking its face and neck. The restless horse calmed and he looked at Daston and said. “Consider this your first lesson with horses. I want you to put the saddle on this horse.”
Daston was expecting something like this from the moment he saw Frostfawn was their destination. It was half way through blue watch stone, he would be leaving Avanthal soon enough. His father was going to teach him how to ride a horse, which is something he put little thought into until now. He was picturing himself going off on foot, he now realized how much more efficient he would be with a horse. Putting a saddle on a horse was daunting, as a child he had seen his father put one on Frostwind at some point but didn’t remember any details. He didn’t want to admit that he didn’t know how to put one on, but knew he would only make a fool of himself if he attempted without at least seeing a demonstration. “I…” Daston hesitated and held his breath. “don’t know how.” He released his breath along with his pride.
His father laughed. “Of course you don’t, I’ll show you on Frostwind then you can try on this horse.” He grabbed a saddle off the wall and went into Frostwind’s stall. He flung the saddle over Frostwind with ease then quickly belted the appropriate straps and it was suddenly secure.
Daston eyes turned to indigo as he began concentrating heavily on what his father was doing, making note of what he did in what order. What he actually got out of all of it was his father made it look really easy. He saw and remembered what straps to belt, but was rough on the order, though he was not sure if the order mattered.
“You try.” His father said smiling.
Daston grabbed a saddle which was heavy, but not enough that he couldn’t carry it with one arm. He laid it down on the door of the stall and slowly so he wouldn’t startle the horse climbed over into the stall. The horse looked at him with suspicion but stayed still none the less. Daston stepped in a fairly recently dropped pile of horse dung that was somehow toward the front of the stall, which made no sense to him. He held back any groan of annoyance, and turned his attention toward the horse again, who was still staring at him unblinking. This unblinking stare annoyed Daston further because it seemed like the horse did it on purpose, and inside the horse was laughing at him, but he dismissed the irrational thought and grabbed the saddle and slowly walked next to the horse. Right as he made the movement to bring the saddle up over horse the horse side stepped towards him knocking him down into yet another pile of brown glob, this time getting it all over his backside. He ignored the disgusting squishing sound he heard as he landed and the mocking laugh of his father and glared back at a horse who was staring down at him. His eyes turned red as he quickly got up and jumped out of the horse’s stall and got some a set of reins hanging from the wall. He decided he was going to need to control the beast first. Without asking his father how to use the reins he studied them and figured it out on his own how the reins would fit. He faced the horse without going into the stall, and took a deep breath to calm himself, his eyes turned Indigo colored once again. He hopped over, and approached the horse’s head. He hushed the horse as it began moving around and stroked his head and neck. He moved around dodging the horses attempts to butt him over his head. He continued to hush the animal who was slowly but surely calming and becoming used to his presence. He slowly put the reins on the horse and strapped them securely. He held on tightly to the reins and forced the horses head to face his own. “IF YOU TRY ANYTHING I SWEAR.” He said in a commanding voice. The horse blankly stared at him. He picked the saddle up off the ground (it also had poop clinging onto parts of it) and slung it over the horse. This time the horse stayed still. He strapped the belts and let out a sigh of relief since the job was finished. He looked at his father for approval.
His father laughed at him, but nodded that he had done it right. “You ready to ride him?”
“Ride him?!” Daston was surprised at first but then realized, why wouldn’t they? That was probably the reason he brought him out here and all the hard work he put into saddling the horse was the easy part. Daston smiled as he accepted it and then became fond of the idea and nodded to his father.
His father opened Frostwind’s gate and brought him outside the stables.
Daston opened the other horse’s gate, patted it a few times and grabbed the reins to lead it out of the stall. It was at first reluctant, but soon gave in and walked out peacefully. He joined his father at the horse pen.
“All right. Mount your steed.” His father told him as he climbed onto his own horse. The old man was dexterous for his age, but his slow climbing on top of Frostwind reminded Daston he wasn’t immortal. Daston stood facing the side of his horse, and planned how he was going to mount it.
“whatever way the horse is facing, that leg goes first.” His father advised.
Daston nodded. The horse was facing toward his right, so he put his right leg up on the foot holds on the saddle and swung the other one over. He was impressed with himself that he did it smoothly, but then immediately reached for the reins as the horse began moving around, being not-okay with a new weight on its back.
“You’ve got to break ‘im in boy.” His father watched with a smile at his son’s struggle.
Daston knew his father was being tough on him on purpose, it was one of his ways of preparing him for the real world. He had never ridden on a horse before, it was a strange feeling to have such a strong beast be supporting him, he felt hat he could be butted off at any second. At first every step the horse took as it uncomfortabley moved forward, back, left, right, back, and so on was painful. He pulled on the reins to try and calm him to stop him from moving, he quickly reared on two legs and Daston fell off. He fell straight on his back but was cushioned by the snow on the ground allowing no injuries to occur. His eyes turned slightly pinked red as he became frustrated and angry. He stomped over to the side of the horse which was staring at him again, and hopped onto him. This time he wasn’t putting all of his weight and was standing on the foot holds on the saddle so his legs would have give between him and the horse. He slapped his boots against the horse. He started riding quickly through the snow around in circle in the Pen. Daston held on and leaned with the horse as he turned, but was having great difficulty. He went fairly fast because the snow was a fresh powder, and underneath that was packed down snow from the day before. The horse took a sharper turn this time and Daston went flying off, tumbling through the snow. Cold wet snow covered his face (which he immediately wiped off) and had gotten in his shirt, which was melting all over his back. The feeling was familiar but uncomfortable all the more because it was a result of what he saw as failure. He looked at the horse, he was no longer angry or frustrated, only determined. He ignored the chilling cold that trickled down his back parts of his face, and marched back to his horse. He got back up and began riding him again, the same way, except he was more careful and more focused on what he was doing and where the horse was going. The cool air caused his wet face to feel even more frigid, but he continued to ride until either the wetness was air dried or frozen to his skin. After a few minutes of riding he slowed the horse down and stopped. He was breathing heavily. “How was that?” Daston asked his father.
“You have done well my son.” His father nodded to him with respect. “That horse you are riding on right now. He is the son of Frostwind. I was going to sell him to the stables to be sold, as he is of a strong breed and has no dapples, but he is feisty and has never been so calm around anyone else, I know now he belongs to you.”
Daston looked down at the horse who was standing patiently, having trouble believing that he was seeing the calm side of the horse when he butted Daston down in the stall. He trusted his father’s words none the less and believed him. “What is his name?”
“He is yet to have a name, I have not thought of one fitting.” His father replied. “I will leave that task to you, he is your horse now.”
Daston thought for a moment, he wanted it to be a meaningful name. He looked up at the sky, the moon was full that night, but he hadn’t noticed it till that moment. It was quite a coincidence that during one of the few calms between snowfalls it just happens to be a full moon, he smiled at the beauty the moon gave to the setting. Everything was glistening between the aurora and the moonlight, the world around him looked surreal. He knew what he would name her. “Lunan.” Daston decided.
His father smiled and nodded to him.
Daston smiled back at his father, feeling good about the warm feeling he got when he saw the proud look on his father’s face despite the crap stains and ice forming on his hair… or perhaps because of them.
